X's and O's
by Shikabane-Mai
Summary: Cuddy goes on a second date with Don, but House is House. HouseCuddy


_Disclaimer: I don't own House M.D_

**Pairing: **House/Cuddy

**Summary: **Cuddy goes on a second date with Don, but House is House. ( HouseCuddy )

**Written for a friend (who is too shy to publish her own stories. You know who you are!) who gave me a prompt of: "House/Cuddy - Don and Cuddy go on a second date and House interrupts them like last time. Bonus points for a kiss on the front doorstep!"**

* * *

**X's and O's**

"You expected this date to go wrong again?"

Cuddy looked up, not surprised at the question and in fact, had been almost expectant of it. Don knew a lot about her history of failed blind dates, especially having been the other partner of her previous one. 'Greg House' had earned a rightful reputation in his mind now; the very core of her problems, aka 'The Incredibly Annoying Troublemaker with the Wooden Cane'.

"No," she replied, smiling and continuing to pick at her food. "I've made sure."

"Really?" He asked.

It wasn't a challenge. Don's voice was soft and smooth, the type of a typical charmer that so many women yearned for—the type of a sympathetic lover. Maybe she was just into the rougher men who constantly challenged her...

Damn. Why did House _always _have to be on her mind? His physical form already plagued her five days a week, sometimes more, during work hours. She didn't know if she would be able to stand it if he started invading her thoughts too.

"Lisa?"

Cuddy's eyes flickered back to Don's, haze lifting as her mind focused back on reality. He was looking at her with genuine concern painted on his semi-chubby features and she realized she must have been frowning.

She quickly put up an apologetic smile, "Sorry."

"I hope I'm not boring you." He joked.

"No." She shook her head, hoping to look reassuring, and turned her attention back to her food. Veal piccata and a salad sat in front of her and she had to admit, Don was a pretty good cook.

Cuddy _should _have been feeling the romantic air in her house, because she was sure Don was feeling it. The lights had been dimmed earlier (and Don had complimented her home's beautiful lighting which he said highlighted just the right places of her body).

It was one of those typical romantic dates: Don was dressed in a tux, tie and all, ironed, and he even put in the effort to gel his hair. Cuddy had chosen to dress with velvet grace, the crimson elegance of her strapless cocktail dress, illuminated by the darkened low-watt fluorescent lights of her living room, that ended its hems in layers of big zig-zags just above her knees.

To say she looked beautiful and absolute stunning didn't even come close and still, only one person was there to admire it.

A metal fork entered her line of vision and she looked up, surprised, to see Don's outstretched hand, to the fork, and finally to the tiny piece of veal piccata that was on the tip of it.

He was offering to feed her. Just like a male partner should.

Oh. God.

Why did she find that so embarrassing?

Don was still looking at her expectantly, patiently and Cuddy opened her mouth, half on the verge of protest, half on the verge of just giving in.

She was saved however, by the sudden ringing of the doorbell. The hollow, melodic sound echoed down the empty hallway and both turned their heads. Cuddy already had a faint suspicion of who was at her door at this hour; the last person she wanted to see tonight.

Excusing herself, she got up; her red heels clicked on the wooden floor and she stood on tip-toe to peek through the peephole. The sight of Gregory House, standing with his cane poised ready to knock with it, met her. For a moment, she considered not opening the door at all so he wouldn't be able to cause trouble, but rethinking, with House being House, he'd probably start shouting at the neighbours if she didn't let him in.

With a heavy sigh of exasperation and hope of getting it over with, Cuddy swung the wooden door open, cold winter air causing goose bumps to rise on her bare arms and moonlight spilling into the entrance of her home, and illuminating nearby furnitures including herself in a strange ghostly blue-grey.

To say his expression was utterly priceless as he stood on her doorstep, eyes wide, sweeping up and down her slender frame, the dress brandishing assets of her body and tightening in just the right places, while his mouth slightly parted in what could be called a gasp, was a completely understatement.

The only word he managed to stutter out was: "W-wow..."

Satisfaction washed through her and she knew she shouldn't have felt so proud when her date was just 20 meters away from her, in her living room. She was used to his constant leering at certain parts of her, but not such obvious admiration and fascination that he was displaying at the moment.

"House, what the hell are you doing here?" She demanded, voice naturally changing into the same authoritative in-control tone she used at work. It wasn't anything unusual.

He managed to compose himself by clearing his throat half-heartedly and lifting his lingering leer to move a little more north towards her actual face before he could completely make a fool of himself.

"Well," he began nonchalantly. "Other than the obvious fact to see you look like that, I came to check up on a certain Dean of Medicine..." House paused, attempting to peek into her home, pretending to be searching for something or someone while actually using the opportunity to get a closer look at her chest, and when he was finally satisfied, turned back to her, "who can't possibly be you, 'cause Deans aren't allowed to have 20-pound funbags that look like _that. _Have you been eating too much fro-yo?"

Cuddy smiled in spite of herself. That would be the closest thing to a compliment she'd get from House, something he rarely ever did.

Once again, House faked the action looking in her home, but they were both clearly aware that he wasn't dense enough to not have noticed by now. No one dressed up like she was right now if they weren't on a date and House was obviously trying to get a glimpse of her partner, whether his reasons were altruistic or not.

This time, Cuddy blocked his line of sight by closing the door more and moving to fill in the only gap that would allow him to look inside.

House pouted, "Aw, c'mon Cuddles..."

She didn't budge however, and opted to try and look annoyed. "I repeat: What do you want?"

"For you to release my boss." He retorted.

"Right, well she's right down the other street," she answered smoothly. "So why don't you skip over there and kindly leave me to finish my business?"

House paused, slowly letting the tiniest tints of a grin pull at the corners of his mouth. He'd never admit it, but Cuddy was one of the only few who'd genuinely make him smile. "Nice. But I won't fall for that trick again. You may have defied me the last time, Imposer, but not again!"

Cuddy rolled her eyes, "House."

"Immaturity. It's what the chicks dig nowadays."

"And unfortunately something more _mature _woman _don't_."

"Darn!" he exclaimed sarcastically. "I just _knew _something was missing!"

Cuddy crossed her arms under her chest, trying to hide an amused smirk threatening to spread across her face. She didn't want to give him extra amo to continue his immature games and certainly, this was what he wanted: to make her enjoy their usual power plays just as much as he was enjoying it.

Before any of them could say anything though, another voice, masculine, called. "Lisa! Is everything okay?"

It was loud enough for the both of them to hear without trouble and for a split second, House thought he recognized the male voice.

Cuddy hesitated, wishing so much that House would just leave. Surely he'd cause even more havoc for her if he were to realize she was dating Don—_again._ Their last encounter in the coffee shop had already been enough of a pain in the ass, not to mention a major embarrassment on her part.

She turned her head, calling behind her shoulder, "Yeah, everything's fine, just wait a minute!"

She spun back just as the door was shoved open abruptly and realized just a little too late that House had used her 2 second attention away from him to open the door and step past her to enter.

She grabbed his arm in alarm, but he only looked at her innocently, "What?"

"What the hell are you doing?" She hissed, voice low just in case Don heard them.

House must have picked up on her hushed tone because his next words were completely cranked up in volume.

"Nothing!" He yelled, his voice echoing down the hallway. Cuddy's eyes widened as she attempted to clamp a hand over his mouth to shut him up but his hands were faster and quickly wrapped around hers halfway. His other arm, meanwhile, snuck its way around her waist to pull her closer to him. "It's just that you _promised _you'd go out with me today!"

That must have been House's intentions all along and she'd been a few seconds too late to see that they were absolutely too close to each other, with both his hands on her while she held onto his arm and if their faces had just been _half an inch _closer, it would've looked like a couple a split second before a kiss, to not be considered a 'compromising position'. Except maybe for the fact that one of them was wearing a coat on top of a rumpled dress shirt along with jeans, completely undressed for the occasion, while the other was in a reeling red dress, creamy expanse of her legs exposed from the knee down.

At the other end of the hallway, someone cleared his throat.

House turned his head up, whereas Cuddy had to struggle to turn around, with House still keeping his tight and slightly possessive grip on her. Exasperated, she dug her heels into his foot, even his leather shoes lessened the pain only slightly, and House grimaced.

"Jeez, woman..."

Cuddy turned around to face Don and was almost surprised to find that his expression was not of shock, jealousy, or anger for that matter. He looked almost... the same as he did before.

"Greg House," Don greeted, voice polite as he walked over—exactly like the last time they'd spoken. "Nice to meet you again."

Don stuck his hand out and House took it without hesitation. He'd never backed down from a challenge before, and this was one battle House was determined to win.

"Yeah..." House's voice was laced with false sincerity. "David."

"His name's Don." Cuddy interjected. She knew very well that House had only pretended to forget his name to rile her up even more and possibly to try and piss Don off.

"Right. Well then, Don, or whatever your name is," House began and Cuddy rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Our Dean of Medicine and I have important hospital business we need to discuss—_in private._"

The last part was purposely emphasized, a suggestive glance in Cuddy's direction confirmed her suspicions of what House was implying and she opened her mouth to protest, "I have a cellphone."

"I tried calling, but it didn't work."

"Home phone?" She asked.

"I'm not an obsessive stalker, I don't have all your phone numbers memorized. Now wouldn't _that _be scary?"

She glared at him, the irony of those words so blatantly obvious though he pretended it wasn't there.

"You called my house a few days ago—"

"Short term memory." He cut her off quickly, dodging the attack just as swiftly with yet another petty excuse.

Cuddy crossed her arms again, a habit that she'd long since developed whenever she was aggravated, and usually an emotion she only showed when she was around House. Now she was frowning at him, her intense glare that would have sent any other normal human being reeling met House's unflinching gaze.

Their silent communication, a trait that both had found extremely useful over the past, went unnoticed by Don, though the so-called conversation was mostly one-sided anyway, from Cuddy to House: "We need to talk."

House pretended to sigh by letting out a heavy breath, though it sounded more like a semi-wheeze.

"Fine, let's talk. About my patient."

Cuddy looked at him in surprise and confusion. House never gave up so fast, never admitted defeat; so either he'd already gotten what he wanted (which she doubted) or he was up to something.

"But," House continued, "I wanna talk outside."

"I... -" She was trying to object, not entirely trusting to let him make the decisions, but no reason seemed to slip past her lips at the moment. Other than the fact that it was freezing cold outside with the snow piling up more and more right now, she had no other excuse. The pros outweighed the cons: House and Don wouldn't be interacting, and she wouldn't have to deal with two 10-year olds fighting over their crush.

She finally relented, albeit reluctantly. Muttering a regretful apology at Don, she stepped outside and House soon followed. When the door slid shut and both were outside on her porch with soft snow billowing around them, she rounded on him.

And stopped short just as she turned around because she was suddenly met head on with a massive chest covering up her entire field of vision.

"What the hell—"

Those three words were the only thing she could get out before something soft and warm covered her lips, successfully shutting her up without a complaint. It took her 2 whole seconds to grasp the fact House was _kissing _her (or was the other way around?) and she ignored the thought that if Don found her outside this very moment... Adrenaline pumped through her veins as the only thing she could feel or think at the moment was pure pleasure and how much she'd missed his lips. Fifteen years ago, she'd kissed his gentle and sympathetic lips, now fifteen years later, it was still so much the same and so much more.

Even now they battled for dominance, her hands slipping to tug at his collar and he growled possessively. And she knew she shouldn't be doing this, that it was forbidden. Employer, employee. But when had they ever played by the rules? Hiring him had been completely off the rocker, so what was this compared to that?

She could taste the faint aroma of Vicodin on his lips, something bitter sweet, and she licked at it, grazing his teeth in the process. House made a sound of approval at the back of his throat. She felt his fingertips pull at her jaw before they actually connected and knew he was pulling her mouth open to gain more access, but didn't care one bit.

Stars appeared in her vision, her lungs felt like bursting from the lack of oxygen and too much carbon dioxide, and with one final kiss, they both pulled apart breathlessly.

She closed her eyes tightly, trying to process what had just happened. Her forehead rested on his chest, hot breath panting into his shirt that he could feel even through the fabric and she held onto his waist tightly. Her foot almost knocked a plant pot over as he moved her backwards towards the wall a bit and she suddenly remembered that he'd dropped his cane somewhere in the middle of it all.

There was a sudden sound of her front door opening, and they both turned, for the second time that night, towards Don at the front doorway. This time, his calm and collected exterior was completely shattered by the sight of his date burying her face and body into another man, namely Gregory House, and his eyes widened in utter disbelief and shock. His mouth opened and closed, jaw working to form words, but nothing came out.

And Cuddy knew, even without having to see Don's dumbfounded face or House's brightened smug smile, that she was in deep, deep trouble...

* * *

**Ha! I get a bonus point for a kiss on the doorstep! xD**

Internet cookies for those who review? ;) And a double cookie for those who answer this question: _Between the X's and O's, which ones are the hugs and which ones are the kisses? (I honestly don't know and have been wondering ever since Act Your Age...)_

**And triple cookies for those who answer this: **So this was originally longer, but the more I wrote, the longer the whole story seemed to be getting (which would ultimately make this a crazy long one-shot, which was not something I wanted). So now I'm wondering if I should add more? Because honestly, to me, it feels incomplete. Whaddya think?

EDIT (Nov 1, 07): This is a one-shot after all. I just have absolutely no drive to write more right now. x( --though expect more from me once something big between House & Cuddy happens on the show.


End file.
